Crete: The Largest of the Greek Isles

Lassithi Plateau, Crete, Greece

During my last few years of teaching, our Social Studies curriculum changed from American History (my favorite thing to teach) to Ancient Civilization.  I was disappointed because beyond Roman Civilization (which I picked up from my years of taking Latin), I was not very knowledgeable about Ancient Civ.  However, I remember commenting to Chuck that at some time or other in my life, I’d like to go to Greece because when we would talk about ancient Greece, it not only sounded fascinating, but the country itself sounded beautiful!   Now we find ourselves in Greece for the third time since my retirement, and this cruise has visited a wide variety of Greek ports, with a few more to come yet.  I’ve been thoroughly enchanted by the beauty of the Greek isles and am so glad to have the opportunity to see several Greek ports I hadn’t seen before. The country is truly enchanting, and the people seem to be very warm and friendly.  

                                                                                                         

We arrived at Greece’s largest island, Crete, to find sunshine pouring in our window, an extremely welcome sight after having had several days of overcast skies and a few that included rain.  We were docking in Crete’s largest city of Iraklion.  Iraklion is quite a modern city, having been rebuilt since World War II, when it had been destroyed by the Nazis.  With about 300,000 inhabitants, Iraklion makes up just under 1/3 of the population of Crete.  

Crete was one of the places where I was scheduled to take a shore excursion.  I was quite disappointed when Debby, the shore excursion representative who has been working with me, said that I absolutely could not do the Palace of Knossos.  Being interested in Greek Mythology, I had hoped I’d be able to visit the palace because that’s where the mythical Minotaur had guarded the labyrinth.  Debby did assure me that I could handle the one and only excursion that did not go to the palace, and it sounded interesting, so I booked it.  Chuck read the description and decided that he would enjoy it, so he booked it also.  (I wonder if there was an ulterior motive because he announced this morning, “Oh, good!  I don’t have to do the blog today!”)

We were pleased that Alice was also on the excursion, making for a very pleasant morning.  The excursion, entitled Lassithi Plateau, took us into the interior of the island.  As we headed out of the city, our guide George gave us a very informative running commentary.  Crete is pretty much equidistant among three continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia, making it a very desirable location. As a result it has been taken over by many different cultures.   It was originally settled by Neolithic men, who lived in the caves in the mountains.  Evidence of human inhabitance dates back to 5000 BC.  Early in its history, the Minoans, a seafaring people, lived there.  It has been taken over by the Greeks, Romans, became part of the Byzantine empire, was controlled by Venice, as well as others, the most recent being the Nazis before Crete became a part of Greece once again. 

In addition to the mythical Minotaur, Crete played an important role in the mythology of Zeus.  According to myth, Zeus’s father was Kronos and his mother was Rhea.  Kronos believed that one of his children would eventually kill him.  So each time a baby was born, Kronos would kill it.  In order to protect her unborn baby, Rhea came to Crete and hid in a cave up in the Lassithi Plateau.  Zeus was born in that cave; he later killed his father and became king of the Greek gods. 

There are three mountain ranges in Crete, and we were heading from the northern shore of the island toward Mt. Ditki.  Crete has about 35 million olive trees, just a few more than Corfu’s 4½ million!  We must have seen about half of them!  Olive oil is the main product of the island, and tourism is also very important.  Because the main tourist season starts around the beginning of May, this works out well for those who produce olive oil. Olives are harvested during the winter, freeing those people up to be involved with tourists during the summer.  Olives have to be harvested by hand.  I can’t even begin to imagine having to harvest so many trees by hand!  They place nets under the trees, and use devices to shake the branches, allowing the ripe olives to drop into the nets.  (At least they don’t have to pick each olive by hand!)

Our first of two stops was at the 13^th Century Monastery of Kera.  Back in the late 13^th Century, someone found an icon in that area that looked like the Virgin Mary.  The icon quickly became an important religious relic, and by 1300, a monastery had been erected with the relic as its central feature.  The icon was taken to Constantinople, but somehow it miraculously flew back to the monastery.  It was taken once again, and it flew back to the monastery again.  The third time it was taken, it was chained to a column in Constantinople.  The icon managed to fly back to the monastery a third time, still attached to the column with the chain.  It was taken a fourth time, this time by Venice.  For some reason, it did not come back from Venice; it remains there, and today one can see a replica of the icon in the small monastery.  People can wrap themselves in the chain and pray to the icon (replica) for relief from some concern.  As our guide described the monastery, we actually saw a Greek woman enter the tiny monastery, wrap herself in the chain, kiss the window in front of the icon, and pray.  Also inside the monastery are 14^th Century wall paintings, used to depict the story.  The monastery is now cared for by several nuns, who made their presence known as we visited.  Their biggest concern was to be sure that we did not take any pictures inside the monastery.  We did enjoy seeing the altar adorned with hundreds of flowers, put there in the celebration of Easter. 

We continued on our way up to the Lassithi Plateau.  Lassithi literally means mountain with a forest.  While there is no forest there now, there was at one time.  The plateau is high enough not to be able to support olive trees, but there are orchards that produce a variety of fruits. Lassithi Plateau is known for its windmills.  We saw them everywhere as we passed through small farm villages. 

In the village of Tzermiado, we stopped for a chance to explore as well as for a snack of traditional local foods.  I particularly liked a small pastry that was filled with cheese of some kind.  There were other pastries filled with spinach, as well as some breads, tomatoes, olives, and cheese, accompanied by red wine, white wine, or water.  Upon finishing the snack, we were given time to wander through the streets.  I didn’t want to go too far as I didn’t want to walk too much.  However, I was delightfully entertained right next to the restaurant by a man with a staff, his German shepherd dog, and hundreds of sheep, all with bells tied around their necks.  It was quite an idyllic setting.  The man controlled the dog and the sheep with a motion of his staff.  The sheep were well tended under his watchful eye, especially when some sheep wandered too near the tourists, or worse yet, when some tourists wandered too close to the sheep in order to snap pictures.  Actually, in most of those cases, it was when the tourists charged toward the sheep rather than sensibly approaching them very slowly! 

Our trip back to Iraklion was over the same road, giving the opposite side of the bus the opportunity to get pictures they had missed on the way up.  The driver managed to slow down a little to allow us the opportunity to get a few pictures of some of the ruins of old windmills.  As we drove through some of the small villages, we noticed several men sitting in the cafes. Our guide explained that we would never see Greek women in the cafes.  They are home working.  The men have the time to get out to shoot the bull with other men.  We had also noticed a few women out and about, dressed entirely in black.  The guide told us that it is very typical to see women dressed in black, and when a woman is widowed, it is tradition that she never marries again and wears black for the rest of her life.  It would certainly simplify the wardrobe, but I think I would find it quite boring! 

Despite missing the main attraction, the Palace of Knossos, we thoroughly enjoyed being able to see some of the scenic countryside of Crete.  It was a very pleasant excursion!

As we headed toward our next port of call, Cyprus, we welcomed a day at sea after five days in port.  Twice on our cruise, the captain has reported interesting and unique wildlife sightings during his midday announcements.  One day he told us that they had varnished the railings on one deck only to later discover that a seagull had landed on the rail and gotten stuck. They had to somehow rescue the terrified seagull from the rail and then try to clean up his feet before he could escape to freedom. Then of course they had to re-varnish the railing. And the morning after leaving Crete, the captain informed us that they had noticed a couple of pigeons who were taking a rest on the bow, but suddenly took flight, to the surprise of the officers.  Then they discovered that a barn owl had somehow ended up on the ship and was resting on a railing.  (Fortunately this railing wasn’t varnished.)  Since owls are nocturnal, they can’t quite figure out why this owl joined the ship, but we’re hoping that he will survive, along with the little wagtail that we discovered on the sky deck, till we get to Cyprus.

BT

Gythion, Greece -- Where the Ancient Spartans Ruled

Ruins of Mystras, Greece

Admittedly when we saw a place called Gythion, Greece on our itinerary, it was not one of our “must see” ports at all.  Not only that, but it was a tender port and naturally we prefer a dock so we can come and go as we please rather than having to wait to tender back and forth.  So when we woke up to heavy overcast and with some flashes of lightning and claps of thunder, I almost wished the Captain would say it was too dangerous to tender and we would have to skip the port.  Am I ever glad my wish was not fulfilled!  It was a wonderful stop and everyone agreed that it was it was a great place to visit.   

The options for tours here were very limited:  one went to visit the Diros Caves which I knew nothing about, and the other visited the ruins of an ancient mountainside village Mystras on the lower slopes of Mt. Taygetos.  From the descriptions, we knew Barb could do neither of them, so I opted for the latter excursion, Sparta & Mystras.   It was a good choice; in fact an excellent one. 

The port of Gythion is on the southwestern Peloponnesian Peninsula of Greece, so it’s on mainland Greece rather than one of the main islands of Greece.  Its most historical claim to fame is that it was where Sparta once vied with Athens for dominance in Greece during ancient times.  Most will remember from history that most of the cultural contributions from Greece had come from Athens and that Sparta had more of a military emphasis and was, well, more spartan in appearance.  Gythion and Sparta today are in Laconia (from which the English word, “laconic” is derived), the Greek equivalent of one of our states.  As we drove toward Mystras, we had about an hour’s drive through lush green scenery and the snow capped Mt. Taygetos.  Interestingly though as I looked out the window on my side, the sky was blue giving the opportunity for great pictures.  But the sky was still overcast and black on the other side. 

In ancient times Sparta vied with Athens among the city-states for domination and was an area that had many ties to Greek gods and goddesses.  The original Spartans lived in barracks and led an austere life.  Military authority was predominant there and interest in architecture, monuments, and the “good life” had virtually no place. Unlike Athens, there is virtually nothing surviving from the ancient Spartans.  Our guide explained that Spartans preferred to wage military campaigns close to home where they knew the terrain while Athens was partial to preserving its culture and fighting wars away from Athens. We drove though Sparta on the way to our major destination, Mystras.  This turned out to be one of my previously undiscovered jewels of the entire cruise. 

Mystras was built on the slopes of Mt.Taygetos and despite the fact that it was on the lower slopes, it was still plenty high when we consider that the people in the 13th century that lived there had to go up and down the steep slopes in the conduct of their daily activities.  The town had been a walled town and was built as a fortress in 1249, and when the Byzantines established rule there in 1262, Mystras was a mainstay of the Byzantine Empire through the mid 15th century.  It was a brilliant period for this medieval fortress-state.  Thus what we visited was not part of the achievements of ancient Sparta, but was many centuries later.  The two cultures just happened to occur in the same geographic area.  Mystras had been filled with homes, mansions, and churches and was densely populated at the time. Surprisingly it was inhabited until 1953 when the last of the permanent residents moved from Mystras. Because Mystras was so widely respected at the time, it flourished and represented a close link with Constantinople in terms of culture and the arts – quite a contrast with the ancient Spartans. 

When we arrived at Mystras, our guide said she would provide a walking tour for about an hour or a little more of our two hour visit and then we would have time to explore the area on our own.  She said people would be free to break away from the group to explore on their own as long as everyone returned to the bus for our 11 AM departure.  As soon as we began our climb over the uneven stone steps, we realized we were in a place of exceptional beauty.  While most of the buildings were ruins, they had been tastefully maintained with Mystras being another of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  The beautiful springtime flowers were in full bloom.  There were no formal gardens, just the beautiful wildflowers in their reds, violets, blues, yellows, and whites on the ground, between the stones, and on vines on the ruins.  Bees could be heard buzzing as they were having the proverbial “field day” with all the flowers.  One person on our tour correctly said that she loved to travel to Europe at this time of year because it is so lush and green with the trees’ buds having come out recently and the wildflowers in profusion. 

I stayed with the guide for a few minutes, but like about half of our group, somehow we lost her as we stopped to take advantage of all the photo opportunities.  We assumed we’d catch up with her but suddenly we came upon a fork in the path up the mountain and could hear no voices so we weren’t sure where we were.  The young ship escort from Holland America said she’d run down and see if we had passed the guide.  Sure enough, they had gone into one of the buildings on the grounds and she was explaining one of the churches to that part of the group.  Some went down to rejoin her while a few others waited.  She hadn’t come up with the group within a few minutes, so I decided I would set out on my own but after a few minutes of seeing absolutely no one, I decided it wasn’t a wise idea to keep going into an area where there wasn’t a soul around.  While it’s a beautiful place, I didn’t want to be left behind.  Not to worry, a few minutes later I saw someone from another bus and then someone sporting a sticker from the same bus I was on.  Almost immediately we saw our guide leading the group not far ahead and got to hear her description of the monastery with its ornate walls and beautiful architecture.  It was after her explanation there that we were given 45 minutes to explore on our own.  The time passed quickly as nearly everyone kept snapping pictures of the magnificent treasures – both architectural and scenic.  I should comment that being on a mountainside, we saw the panorama of the countryside and villages below us.  Every single person I talked with had never heard of Mystras, and every single person was “wowed” by the unexpected gem of a place to visit.  We had made an excellent selection of shore excursions today.  It’s a good thing most cameras are digital today or people would have spent lots of money on film!  

When we left Mystras, we went just about 10 minutes back to Sparta, the administrative capital today and a rather non-descript city of 50,000 people.  We made a quick change back to the time of the ancient Spartans and had a short stop to see the statue to Leonidas who had fought the historic Battle of Thermopylae with just 300 Spartan warriors.  From there it was a 45 minute drive back to the pier at Gythion where we noticed that the sun was out but there was evidence of rain on the streets and in puddles.  I decided that I would spend a few minutes in town before tendering back to the ship.  It is a beautiful little village with lots of restaurants including many seaside cafes.  Some of the owners were putting cushions back on seats of their outdoor cafes.  I seemed to see only restaurants and a few hotels. I came across exactly one souvenir shop which was highly unusual.  It suggested to me that tourism had not caught on in large part in this part of Greece yet.  I saw no souvenir shop at Mystras, though they had a high end museum shop there, no souvenir shop near the Leonidas statue in Sparta and exactly one in Gythion.  For the quality of Mystras, I noticed that the cost of admission for adults was just five Euros! Our three buses from Holland America seemed to be the only tourists there on a Sunday morning.  Of course, though, this is very early in the tourist season.  May through October is considered to be when most tourists visit Greece.  

Barb and Alice took the tender into Gythion for a short time in the morning and enjoyed seeing the fishing boats, restaurants and the waterfront of this pleasant and unspoiled Greek village. She was amazed at the number of places that had octopus tentacles hanging out to dry and then discovered that octopus is one of the mainstays of local cuisine.  Barb will be doing a shore excursion in Crete tomorrow and wanted to save her energy for that visit but both of us are enjoying visiting new places in Greece.  Every Greek port so far is a new adventure for both of us.

Having never been to this part of Greece, I can now highly recommend it to those who have visited Athens and the other well-known Greek Islands.  I would say it is a nearly undiscovered jewel for visitors to Greece.  In that respect it reminds me a lot of the beauty of Wales which far too many skip in their trips to the United Kingdom!   This was a great day!  

CT

A New Appreciation for a Second Visit to the Greek Island of Cephalonia

Bells at Church at Monastery of St. Andrew, Cephalonia

Our second island of the Ionian chain of Greek Islands was Cephalonia, an island we had visited in 2008.  Initially I had not planned an excursion for here because we had done the underground Melissani Lake and the Drogarati Cave and had visited Sami, where the movie Captain Corelli’s Mandolin had been filmed, but I had some monetary credits from AAA, with which we had booked the cruise, and if I didn’t use it, I’d lose it!  I had pre-booked most of my excursions before leaving home so as to spread out the cost over a period of months.  I hadn’t realized that we would be getting the credits until after boarding the ship in March.  Barb had decided not to book anything because we had seen the biggest tourist attractions in 2008 so I found the excursion Leisurely Cephalonia and it was short and really did look easy, so I decided to book that one. “Leisurely” sounded good to me because with so many ports day after day, it can be exhausting rushing to do too much.

For some reason, I had remembered little about this island from 2008 other than the three places mentioned above that we visited. I remembered absolutely nothing about the port or the town of Argostoli where we are docked.  We had tendered in 2008 and were scheduled to tender this year but there is now a dock where some smaller cruise ships may dock and since no other cruise ships were in town today, we got the dock!  YEA!!  One of the biggest advantages of cruising on the smallest ship of the Holland America fleet is that it is able to get to smaller places than the megaships can visit.

I was most pleasantly surprised with today’s tour because I hadn’t remembered what a beautiful island it is.  Bottom line is that I was quite impressed with Cephalonia so was glad I hadn’t just puttered around town which is what I had previously planned.  While not the dramatic views that Santorini and Mykonos have to offer or the exceptionally quaint villages on those islands, nevertheless the countryside and the village were quite picturesque.  As a small island with a population today of about 40,000 of which about a third of that population living in the port of Argostoli, it made it easy for Cephalonia to fall under the sway of larger, more powerful countries.  The Roman Empire, Venice (for hundreds of years), and Britain (for over 50 years in the 19th century), and currently Greece, governed Cephalonia.  Thus the influence of Venice and Italy are found on the island including some Italian terms that are a part of the language.  It suffered severe damage from German bombing during World War II and then suffered a devastating earthquake in 1953 which destroyed most of the island except for one village and a few other structures.

The day had surprisingly dawned sunny and bright (a rare exception to the last two weeks), but the sun gave way to clouds early in the excursion.  At least it didn’t rain at all!  We climbed into the mountains of Cephalonia and stopped in a small town called Kourkomelata which had been destroyed by the 1953 earthquake.  However it had been rebuilt by a local benefactor who not only rebuilt his own home but those of the other villagers.  The village was charming and the church and its setting drew the picture takers on our bus.  Likewise, the countryside scene from the village was excellent.  Then we went to the Monastery of St. Andrew for another photo stop.  We were admitted to two of the churches in the small complex.  One was more exquisite from the outside and the other on the interior.  The other chapel, while quite plan on the outside, revealed a beautiful, ornate interior.  It was there that we could view a rather bizarre relic that was on display – what is supposedly is the right sole of St. Andrew’s foot!  He had been crucified but said he wasn’t worthy to be crucified in the same way as Jesus Christ, so asked to be crucified upside down.  The reasonably small interior was magnificent and the guide explained that it was traditional for the patron saint for whom a church or monastery was named to be shown with his picture at the far right as one faces front – thus St. Andrew was portrayed there.  Second from the left would be Mary with the infant Jesus, and the third picture would portray the adult Christ.  The setting here was really outstanding as well.  Our final stop, the least important for me was a visit to the Rombola Winery.  For me wineries are a waste of time and I went out and took a few more pictures while waiting for the connoisseurs of great wine to render their verdicts on the local wine.  I am not complaining as it was the only winery I’ve visited on the cruise so far and we weren’t there long.

In addition to the three specific stops we made, I thoroughly enjoyed the great countryside and mountain scenery.  Spring flowers (some certainly flowering weeds) were in bloom in an array of color, mostly yellow but I am pretty sure it wasn’t gorse, but also white, red, and orange.  There were quite a few poppy fields as well.  The trees were varied and beautiful too and many flowers (weeds) were to be found in the rocky crags.  From the mountain to the valley to the coast, the scenery kept changing and was excellent.  Our guide said the climate is pretty temperate but that February and March were typically the worst months with cold and rain, and that July and August can be oppressively hot and dry.  The rest of the months are generally good – our temps today were probably in the comfortable 60s.  There were several animals to be found, mostly sheep and goats. I was hoping to snap a picture of several mountain goats on a rocky cliff but just as I snapped from the bus, a big round sign appeared and blocked the entire important part of the picture.  Oh well.  I just don’t remember this island as having been so beautiful six years ago but apparently we were more focused on the underground lake and the caves then and not so focused on the great scenery.

After getting back to the ship and having a quick lunch, I suggested that we might take Barb’s wheelchair and go into town for a little while.  it was a long pier but the chair wheeled easily on it, but what I hadn’t seen as we returned by the bus was that many of the sidewalks were stone and where sidewalks existed, they were narrow and cluttered with outside souvenir displays.  So after a while with Barb walking because the sidewalk couldn’t handle wheelchairs, we turned around and went back to the ship.  She’d rather save her energy for some upcoming shore excursions. 

I found the day to be a very pleasant second trip to this Ionian island and have a more favorable view now than my more neutral opinion several years ago.  The little known island of Gythion (where ancient Sparta reigned in the days of conflict between Athens and Sparta) will be next, tomorrow. 

CT

The Lovely Ionian Island of Corfu, Greece

Looking out over Corfu from Lakones

Several days ago we received an email from our friend Nina.  She had seen that we would be visiting Corfu and was pleased as she had spent time there as an AFS (American Field Service) student while in High School.  So we were really looking forward to seeing the island, having been alerted to what we might expect. 

What we didn’t expect was to receive a notice from Shore Excursions the morning before, stating that our shore excursion had been canceled; not enough people had signed up.  So we had to look over the list of excursions and make a quick decision.  We certainly didn’t want to do it on our own after hearing many wonderful things about the island!  After careful consideration, I opted for Panoramic Corfu, which required very little walking, something I needed after a busy day in Dubrovnik the previous day.  After being assured by Shore Excursions that I could definitely handle that excursion on my own, Chuck chose to do Paleokastritsa & Corfu, which required far more walking. 

We woke up to a steady rain and thick, low clouds.  We were quite disappointed to see such dismal weather, but at least when I went out, it had stopped raining, and I had none during my entire excursion. 

Mine was a short tour that pretty much circled the island with a half-hour stop for what would have been lovely scenic views of the island had the weather not been so dreary.

Our guide gave a running commentary as we drove, providing very interesting facts about Corfu.  Corfu is the second-largest Greek island with a population of more than 110,000 permanent residents; it is located nearest the countries of Italy, Albania, and the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia.  It certainly doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of Greek islands, the most well-known being Santorini and Mykonos.  She explained that those two islands are located in the Aegean Sea, which has very different weather conditions than Corfu and its six companion Greek islands of the Ionian Sea.  While the Aegean islands are hot and dry (we sure hope that proves to be the case on this cruise), those in the Ionian Sea tend to be rainier.  As a result, the hot and dry Aegean islands choose to paint their buildings white (with distinctive blue roofs) so sunlight will be reflected, while Corfu and other Ionian islands don’t need the whiteness and therefore paint their buildings in a variety of light colors.  Corfu is very lush and green, with the most prevalent trees being olive and cypress trees. 

She explained that the seas (Adriatic, Ionian, and Aegean) are all part of the Mediterranean but are given names to designate areas of the Mediterranean Sea.  The Adriatic refers to the area to the east of and near Italy.  Ionian refers to the area west of Greece, and Aegean refers to the area east of Greece.  (This makes perfect sense to someone who lives near Chicago and refers to the Loop, Near North, Gold Coast, etc., all specific neighborhoods of Chicago.)

We climbed up and up through tiny villages perched seemingly precariously along the cliffs, marveling at the skill of the driver wending his way through the narrowest streets one could imagine!  As our guide commented, the moment we meet a car, they know that the bus can’t back up, so the car has to back up until it can find someplace to get out of the way.  Whew!  We squeezed through with inches to spare, reminding me very much of Harry Potter’s Knight Bus that can actually draw itself in to maneuver tight places.  Each little village was a maze of passageways.  This was done for protection.  Hundreds of years ago people settled high up in the mountains to avoid invasion.  If any foreigners were to manage to reach these small villages, they would end up lost in the maze of streets and walkways, making it nearly impossible for a successful invasion. 

Our one and only stop on the tour was in the mountains in the little village of Lakones at a hotel/restaurant called Bella Vista and what a perfect name!  I can only begin to imagine what breathtaking views we would have had in sunny weather because as it was, the scenery was lovely!  We had a half hour to shop, stop for a snack, or just enjoy the scenery.  I skipped the snack, and spent the time shopping and enjoying the views.  Standing out on the balcony, looking down on the town of Paleokastritsa and out at the sea and the small nearby islands dotting the water was the perfect way to drink in the beauty!  And to add to the flavor, if we listened carefully, we could hear the sound of musical chanting.  I went to find the guide and ask her what we were hearing – we couldn’t tell if it was coming from the monastery just outside Paleokastritsa, a small church near the monastery, or possibly a mosque.  When she listened, she decided it was coming from the church.  After hearing the chanting, we could then hear a voice speaking.  She said it sounded like they were conducting a church service.  It was pretty amazing to be so far up at the top of the mountain and hear those voices way down in the village!

We continued on our way, passing through more small villages as well as the central valley area till we once again reached the coast.  We passed the port and headed to Corfu Town (Kerkira) for a brief tour there before returning to the ship.  The local market appeared to be very interesting, but no more so than the two fortresses.  The “new” fortress dates back to about the 15^th Century and was built by the Venetians, as evidenced by the Venetian symbol of the winged lion that is carved into the fortress wall.  The French took over the island for a few years before losing it to the British after the Napoleonic Wars.  The British influence was definitely visible as we passed the mansion where the British governor used to live, which overlooked a huge cricket pitch, alive with competitors playing cricket.  Apparently Corfu is hosting an international cricket tournament, and countries from as far away as Australia have sent teams to compete. 

I was pleased to have managed the tour on my own with no incidents, and to have been able to enjoy this lovely island without dealing with rain.  I envy Nina having had the opportunity to live here for several months.  (But then I had my own different opportunity to spend several months in Grenoble, France, so I consider myself very fortunate in that way!) 

BT

As Barb indicated, we were originally scheduled to do a tour called Achillion Palace and Private Villa but a couple days ago we received a notice that it had been canceled due to insufficient participation.  While Barb did her panoramic tour of the island, I picked Paleokastritsa and Corfu as my substitute choice.  While waiting for our excursion to be called, I heard a lady comment that her excursion had been canceled and she had had to select another.  I asked if it was Achillion Palace and Private Villa and she said it had been.  I told her we were rather surprised that there were too few people for it to be done.  Overhearing our conversation a man that I know only vaguely indicated that they had done that tour several years ago and it was outstanding – in fact, he said, it was one of the best excursions they had ever done and that the Greek lunch served at the palace was really excellent.  It was rather expensive but from what he said, it probably would have been worth doing it.  But by having that canceled, I did save a substantial amount of money; I told Barb that I would use that to justify doing the most expensive tour of the whole cruise when we get back to Spain on the extension of the cruise.  Another excursion I could have done was called Albanian Adventure.  I had considered that it was a long tour and I don’t have sense enough to stay in port in new places!  Too much to see and the opportunity to see new places may never present themselves again.  Of course who knows if visiting Albania will ever be possible, but I did want to see Corfu since I had heard it was a beautiful island.  Then when our friend Nina let us know she had been here several decades ago, I definitely wanted to see Corfu.  Several years ago when we did a Mediterranean cruise, we were supposed to go to Corfu but it had been canceled and replaced by two days in Venice instead of one since we were there on a major Italian holiday and platforms had been built on our exit route for the fireworks display.  Now was our chance to see Corfu.

We were disappointed that there was such an overcast sky with rain, but the rain ended before we went out to our bus and the worst we experienced was cloudy skies with a few peeks of blue sky.  Our guide, old enough to have had young children 15 years ago, was an energetic individual who both sang to us and wanted us to sing along.  Never on Sunday was the one she sang initially in Greek and had us join in later in English and asked us to sing “la, la, la” wherever we didn’t know the words.  (The reason we knew about her children was because she told us it virtually never snows on Corfu but that about 15 years ago there was some snow and her children wanted to stay home from school and play in the snow because they had never seen it before.  They were disappointed that there was no snow the next day and they had to go back to school again.)  In the spirit of fun, she admonished us to be back on the bus on time and that the last person back would have to sing a solo for everyone else.  That sure did work!  No one wanted to display musical talents for everyone else.  I might say parenthetically that her English was near flawless and she explained that children in Greece are required to learn English.

Barb described Corfu’s geography and how green the island is, but as confirmation, our guide asked us to guess how many olive trees there are in Corfu.  Guesses were wildly wrong as we realized when she explained that there are about 4.5 MILLION olive trees. (Barb confirmed that her guide had given them the same statistic.) No wonder olives and olive oil is a leading export!  We cut inland from the port to the town of Paleokastritsa located on the opposite (west) coast of Corfu.  We climbed above the town as the guide told us that the Monastery of the Virgin Mary that we were visiting was celebrating a feast day and that it might be quite busy and in fact there could be a religious service going on.  When we arrived, there was just one bus ahead of us into the small parking lot. We thought nothing of that nor were we really surprised when a farmer led a herd of goats right past our bus.  As we got off, we heard a loud chant indicating that something was going on in the church.  We walked along and noticed cats everywhere, two or three, then more and more.  I wouldn’t be surprised if twenty cats resided there.  A lady put some food out and the cats came running from everywhere for their meal.  When we climbed up to the level of the sanctuary, the loudspeakers were deafening.  It almost sounded like a Muslim call to prayer but we knew it was a Greek Orthodox service.  By the time we were finishing there were throngs of people there and we had to fight the crowds.  I think most of them were coming because it was the service being held there.  When we got back to the parking lot, there were buses everywhere and we were blocked in by buses to the left, right, and back with more buses and a few private cars continue to make the trek up the hill.  Gridlock was the word!  But the tour guide and driver did a masterful job of opening the space. The guide actually walked partway down the hill and held the traffic back until the bus came down the hill, picked her up and we were on our way.  By the way, when we returned to the ship, Barb and I compared notes and could confirm that what we heard blasting from nearby loudspeakers was what Barb had heard up on the mountain, quite some distance away!

As we crossed to a place called Kanoni along the coast, while going through a small town, the driver pulled over because he smelled something.  Initially he thought it was a tire, but later he determined that it was a brake.  We commented that at least there was a grocery store and  better yet, a bakery, a few steps away.  But he determined we didn’t have to call a new bus and we proceeded on our way with no more bus issues.  There was a short photo opportunity at Kanoni, which received its name from the cannons in place above the beautiful bay below.  More and more buses came here and once again the throngs of tourists, speaking languages other than English.  We returned to Kerkira or Corfu Town (Kerkira is the Greek name for Corfu).  By the way, English is so universally known here, that many signs are entirely in English!

We parked near the Old Fortress built in 1546 which at one time housed the entire population of the city and walked through Plateia Spianada where we observed a Cricket Match in progress – a lasting influence of the time when the British controlled Corfu.  Then we walked along the elegant walkway between the Cricket Square and the beautiful French style buildings which set the boundary for the narrow streets lined with shops.  To the right were restaurants and outdoor cafes and to the right were more outdoor cafes and beyond it was the spirited Cricket Match taking place.  Our guide said that at one time, the only people that could walk there were noblemen and a person had to register at either end and if their name was not on the list, they would be denied the right to walk there.  She took us down a narrow street to the Church of St. Spiridon, named for the Patron Saint of Corfu. It’s the tallest church on the island and the symbolic center of religious activities on Corfu.  After about 45 minutes of free time to have a coffee in one of the cafes (not me!) or to shop at some of the many stores, we returned to the bus for the drive back to the ship.  We went through the gates of the Palaces of St. George and St. Michael which represented some of the elegance of years gone by.  Though we didn’t get to do the excursion we preferred, we felt we had had a glimpse of one of the jewels of the Greek Islands.

CT